Climate change
Is climate change making the weather more windy?
Heathrow’s nine runways When was a third runway for Heathrow first proposed? Heathrow was always planned to have multiple runways.…
Why Spectator readers are the nicest people
Gstaad It feels like a sepia-tinged melodrama, one directed by the great schlock master Sam Wood. Driving along the winding…
It’s time for an honest debate about the cost of net zero
When the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) launched its report on the feasibility of entirely decarbonising the UK economy, we…
Who actually goes on a cruise?
Breeding controversy A Downing Street aide, believed to have been recruited as a result of Dominic Cummings’s advert for ‘weirdos…
The perils of owning an erotic Nazi toy
My parents told me that their wartime childhoods were punctuated by the expression: ‘Don’t you know there’s a war on?’…
Letters: Britain can be zero carbon – but only by becoming poorer
A green and poor land? Sir: Your editorial (8 February) is a timely warning about what the government’s headlong drive…
Boris must have the courage to spell out the true cost of ‘net zero’
After being sacked as the chairman of the COP26, the UN climate conference which is to take place in Glasgow…
The real reason Glasgow’s UN climate summit will be a nightmare
Regardless of one’s views on climate change, one should welcome the fact that Boris Johnson removed Claire Perry O’Neill from…
I won’t be applying to be director-general of the BBC
Despite huge public pressure, I shall not be applying to be director-general of the BBC. It was kind of Tony…
David Attenborough is making the same mistake as Greta Thunberg
It wasn’t so long ago that Sir David Attenborough came across as a calm voice of reason. His much-admired documentaries…
In Iowa, Democrats tell farmers no new jobs until Greta Thunberg is happy
We were four minutes in, somewhere on the outskirts of Mideast foreign policy, when the boredom began to take hold.…
Our tree-planting obsession may do more harm than good
‘Four beef burgers is the same as flying to New York and back! FOUR BURGERS!’ When I arrived at the…
Panto should be about escapism, not saving the planet
If you were hoping to escape the bilge that’s been pumped out by supposedly neutral organs of the state during…
Channel 4’s climate change debate was a sham
I’ve seen some mad political debates in my time, but none as bonkers as last night’s climate debate on Channel…
Iceland’s melting glaciers are nothing to panic about
Is Iceland on the global warming front line? You’d be forgiven for thinking so. We’ve all seen the documentaries where…
A Citizens’ Assembly on climate change is the coward’s way out
So is it good news that Citizens’ Assemblies are to sit to decide on how best to address the issue…
A surefire international hit: Lungs reviewed
No power on earth can stop Lungs from becoming an international hit. Duncan Macmillan’s slick two-handed comedy reunites Matt Smith…
BBC wildlife documentaries are just a chance to tell us all off
Older readers may remember a time when landmark BBC wildlife documentary series were joyous celebrations of the miraculous fecundity of…
Don’t blame oil and coal companies for climate change
This year’s Nobel Prize for the silliest piece of scientific research must go to something called the Climate Accountability Institute,…
Extinction Rebellion is a menace
It’s tempting to laugh at Extinction Rebellion. I do it myself frequently. Those yoga sessions on Westminster Bridge. The amateur…
School climate strikers should answer these two questions
“The Earth is dying”, “the world is on fire”, we’re undergoing an “environmental extinction”: just three of the sentiments which…
The astonishing resilience of my beach paradise
Malindi I could measure my whole life in the summers I’ve spent on the beach in front of our…
Contraception is the answer to climate change
When last week’s IPCC report warned that the human race may soon have trouble feeding itself, my reaction was: duh.…
Pure hagiography – the BBC’s Extinction Rebellion: Last Chance To Save The World?
I’m beginning to feel like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers: almost the last person on Earth who…
The end is nigh: the rise of middle-class apocalypticism
There’s a lot of anger about — and it’s not pleasant. But at least it means people are engaged as…
